The Mookse and the Gripes discussion

Fundamentally by Nussabah Younis

I had incredibly mixed feelings about this and am glad that its longlisting means that more people might read it - as I'd love to discuss.

I want to get to this though I'm not sure I will. I really enjoyed the author's interview in the Observer debut novelists roundup.

Started on the audiobook and really enjoying it so far.

Yes I enjoyed that interview too.

It is worth noting two of the Observer list made this list (Nesting the other) - it’s really almost an essential guide to pre prize list reading each year.

I came into this one expecting it to be this year's Bandit Queens, but I was astonished by how much I disliked it. I know it's received some good reviews (stronger in the UK than in the US), but I found it very badly written ("I conferred with my watch, then with my stomach, concluding a walk was necessary to get the digestive juices flowing") and filled with stereotypes and superficially-written characters. The only storyline I found remotely interesting was about the narrator's relationship with her mother, and that was resolved abruptly and without any apparent substance. I cannot understand what this one is doing on the longlist. There must have been better novels than this submitted this year.

I don’t disagree your criticisms but I did not actively hate it

Some thoughts

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I also think those criticisms are fair but I do just like it when the WP shortlists something that is at least trying to do something interesting rather than the same old thing (and I preferred it to Bandit Queens, which I had big problems with).

I thought this was some way better than Bandit Queens.

To be clear, I did not love Bandit Queens at all and was baffled by the high praise it got. I was just trying to frame my expectations around my reading of Fundamentally.

I finished it but am not particularly impressed. I think the concept is the best part, but the writing leaves a lot to be desired.

I absolutely loved this book. I agree with Cindy that some of the characters were more caricatures but in a comedy farce, it didn't bother me. Compelling truth can be revealed in silly archetypes. The novel expressed the ridiculousness of bureaucracy and corruption while being digestible and entertaining. I'm so glad it made the WP.

Joy D wrote: "I finished it but am not particularly impressed. I think the concept is the best part, but the writing leaves a lot to be desired."

My thoughts exactly. Interesting concept, I expected it to be written in a different way. While the humor did somewhat grow on me, I didn't like how few consequences were faced at the end for these really big decisions that were made! Maybe that's realistic to the UN, but it didn't seem like it. I thought this would be a 3-4 star book for me partway through it, but by the end I was just mad haha.